Pages

Thursday, March 16, 2017

Diary of John Hay: Tuesday, December 28, 1863

I received to-night letters from Page and Stickney asking me
to come down to Florida and be their Representative in Congress.

Talked with the President about the matter of the
reconstruction of Florida. He wants me to take one of his Oath-books down to
Point Lookout, and get the matter going there, and after that he will appoint
me a Commissioner to go to Florida and engineer business there. By their
meeting at St. Augustine, the other day, there seems a prospect of getting the
State under way early next Spring. I will go down and form my plans after I get
there as to my own course. . . .

SOURCES: Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and
Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 145-6; for the entire diary entry
see Tyler Dennett, Editor, Lincoln and the Civil War in the
Diaries and Letter of John Hay, p. 145-6.